Part of the American History & Genealogy Project

Annie Warfield Lawrence Kerfoot 1829 ~ 1908

Mrs. Kerfoot was the daughter of Otho Williams Lawrence, a lawyer of Hagerstown, Maryland, and his wife, Catherine Murdock Nelson, of Frederick, in the same state. Her maternal grandfather was Brigadier-General Roger Nelson, of Point of Rocks Plantation, Frederick County, who entered the troops of horse under command of Colonel Augustine Washington in 1776, at the age of sixteen years. After the disbandment of the Maryland troops General Nelson read law. Was for six years in the Maryland senate; for a similar period in the National House of Representatives and was subsequently appointed for life judge of the upper district of Maryland. Three granddaughters and five great-granddaughters of General Nelson have become members of the associations of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Among the distinguished lineal ancestors of Mrs. Kerfoot on the maternal side was her great-grandfather, Colonel Joseph Sims, of Prince George County, Justice of the Supreme Court of Maryland, who represented his country in the convention held at Annapolis June 22, 1774, to denounce the English bill closing the port of Boston.

Mrs. Kerfoot was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1829, and was a graduate of St Mary's Hall, Burlington, New Jersey, having received her diploma during the presidency of its revered founder. Bishop George W. Doane, in 1846. She married, in 1847, Samuel Humes Kerfoot" son of Richard Kerfoot, of Castle Blaney, Monaghan County, Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Kerfoot removed from Maryland to Chicago in 1848 and have since resided in that city. Their home was burned in the Chicago fire of 1871, with a rare library and very fine collections of paintings and many priceless relics of Revolutionary and Colonial ancestry.

Mrs. Kerfoot has inherited in a marked degree the dear mind and sound reasoning powers and unbiased judgment of her distinguished ancestors of the bench and bar. She has the enthusiastic temperament of her cavalier blood, which is united with the moderation of her Quaker forefathers. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Chicago Chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution and holds the chairmanship of its Literary Committee and that of the Committee upon Membership, and was elected in February, 1893, state regent of Illinois.

Women of America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.